BAUER AG : achieves healthy growth again after difficult year

• Total Group revenues up 5.2 percent to EUR 1,371.8 million
• Net profit of EUR 34.1 million (previous year: EUR 39.8 million) and EBIT of EUR 82.3 million (previous year: EUR 88.4 million) down slightly
• Orders in hand up 22.0 percent to EUR 750.0 million
  (previous year: EUR 614.9 million)
• Forecast for 2012: Group expects steady growth of five to ten percent, raising total Group revenues to EUR 1.45 billion
• Proposed dividend: EUR 0.50 per share

Schrobenhausen/Munich - International construction engineering and machinery manufacturing concern BAUER Aktiengesellschaft is on a steady growth track once again. "We are satisfied with 2011 overall," comments Chairman of the Management Board Professor Thomas Bauer. "Our strategy has proved its strength over the last year. The Group's broad international spread and the long-term strategic plan underpinning our products and services have enabled us to cope well with external disturbances." Alongside political unrest in the Middle East, the environmental disaster and nuclear accident in Japan, and the return of the financial crisis, problems on major projects also impacted negatively on performance.

Total Group revenues rose by 5.2 percent from EUR 1,304.0 million to EUR 1,371.8 million. Profit was down against the previous year, as expected. While EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) declined from EUR 88.4 million to EUR 82.3 million, net profit was EUR 34.1 million (previous year: EUR 39.8 million).
Group orders in hand at the year-end totalled EUR 750.0 million, 22.0 percent above the previous year's level. This provides a sound foundation for the growth planned over the coming years.

The Management Board and Supervisory Board propose that a modestly reduced dividend of EUR 0.50 per share be paid (previous year: EUR 0.60). This corresponds to a dividend ratio of approximately 27 percent referred to earnings after deducting minority interests.

Business segments

With its three segments - Construction, Equipment and Resources - the Group operates a widely diversified yet well-balanced business model and an international network. This approach once again proved its worth in the past financial year: while the Construction segment was the most severely impacted by the political and economic turbulence, the Equipment and Resources segments achieved substantial growth.

The total Group revenues of the Construction segment fell by 5.4 percent to EUR 582.1 million (previous year: EUR 615.4 million). Segment EBIT fell by 38.8 percent to EUR 17.6 million (previous year: EUR 28.8 million). Factors including the unrest in the Middle East, the effects of the debt crisis in Europe and delays on some construction projects led to falls in revenues and earnings. While orders in hand in Germany decreased slightly, the international order situation developed very positively. Most of this growth was attributable to the Center Hill Dam remediation contract in the USA, acquired in September.

The Equipment segment performed the best, achieving strong growth. Its total Group revenues rose 13.6 percent to EUR 661.0 million (previous year: EUR 581.7 million). Segment EBIT increased by 10.2 percent to EUR 53.2 million (previous year: EUR 48.3 million). Business in this segment is profiting particularly from our strength in large and custom-built machinery. Orders in hand at the year-end totalled EUR 124.7 million (previous year: EUR 140.0 million). Bauer expects to see continued steady growth based in particular on the segment's newly developed products and techniques.

The Resources segment again enjoyed positive growth. Its total Group revenues of EUR 211.5 million were 19.0 percent up on the previous year's level (EUR 177.7 million). Segment EBIT increased by 34.9 percent to EUR 10.9 million (previous year: EUR 8.1 million), though delays and operational problems on a major project in Jordan meant that it did not come up to expectations. Orders in hand increased by 39.5 percent to EUR 168.4 million, providing the segment with a sound foundation for further growth.

Outlook

In the past year the BAUER Group continued to invest in its long-term development and strengthened its business. In Malaysia, a new plant was constructed to serve the markets of the Far East by manufacturing drilling tools and providing local service backup for equipment in use around the region. International equipment service was extended with new workshops in the UK and Russia. A new plant in Poland is manufacturing plastic pipes and filters for the Resources segment. A new plant to produce rotary drilling rigs will be constructed in China this year to replace the current facility.

The BAUER Group also invested heavily in research and development. It achieved a technological breakthrough in the past year with an entirely new technique for sinking the foundations of tidal turbines. And intensive work was carried out to enhance the range of deep drilling rigs for oil and gas drilling and for extracting geothermal energy from depths down to several thousand metres.

"One of the main drivers of construction sector growth over the coming years will be the reversal of energy policy. Old power stations will have to be updated and new ones built, and the generation of power from renewable sources such as wind, biogas and geothermal energy will open up lots of opportunities for us," Professor Thomas Bauer asserts. "Internationally, we see a general major backlog in demand for construction works."

Despite market volatility, BAUER AG expects to achieve annual growth of between five and ten percent over the next two financial years. Based on current figures, the company forecasts that total Group revenues for 2012 will be around EUR 1.45 billion, net profit will be about EUR 35 million, and EBIT around EUR 85 million. It is likely that trends in the industry this year will return to the normal patterns of earlier years, with the first quarter showing a loss which is balanced out over the subsequent quarters.

Our full Annual Report, including a detailed analysis of the individual segments and markets, can be found on our website at http://www.bauer.de.

About Bauer

Bauer is a provider of services, machinery and ancillary products for ground and groundwater. The Group markets its products and services all over the world. Its global spread allows it to remain largely unaffected by fluctuating business cycles.

Its business is divided into three segments: Construction, Equipment and Resources. The Construction segment carries out specialist foundation engineering work for complex excavation pits and foundations on major infrastructure and building projects all over the world, installing cut-off walls and carrying out ground improvement works as well as providing related project development services. Bauer's Equipment segment, a world market leader, offers a comprehensive range of construction machinery, equipment and tools for the specialist foundation engineering sector as well as for other underground drilling operations, such as for mines, water wells, geothermal energy sources, and oil and gas extraction. The Resources segment pools the Group's activities in the fields of water, energy, mineral resources and environmental technology.

Bauer profits greatly from the collaboration between its three separate segments, enabling the Group to position itself as an innovative, highly specialized provider of complete solutions and services for demanding projects on the specialist foundation engineering and related markets.

Founded in 1790, Bauer today generates around three quarters of its total revenues outside of Germany. Employing some 9,700 people, the Group's total revenues in 2011 were approximately EUR 1.4 billion (previous year: EUR 1.3 billion). BAUER Aktiengesellschaft has been listed on the official market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since July 4, 2006 (Prime Standard, ISIN DE0005168108).